This invention relates to barbless fishhooks, and more particularly provides an environmentally acceptable, springless, barbless fishhook. More particularly, it provides a reversible, springless, barbless fishhook made of two bent wires and a leader, which does not tear the mouth of the fish after the hook is withdrawn, either deliberately by the fisherman or accidentally by the fish.
Fishing is one of the worlds enjoyable sports. Years of research, development, and design have gone into providing the fisherman with equipment for effectively catching his or her prey.
Notwithstanding these endeavors, fishhooks in common use today differ only insignificantly from those used decades ago. The fishook is generally a length of wire bent into a crock or hook portion, provided at one end with a sharp point and a sharp barb, and at the opposite end a leader-receiving eye.
Environmentalists have long protested that the conventional barbed fishhook causes debilitating, and often fatal, injury to the fish in the event the fish is able to tear loose of the hook, or if the fisherman cuts the fish loose intending to return it to the water. Alternative remedies have been suggested, but without success. On the one hand, barbless fishhooks have been proposed, but these tend to be complicated (e.g., Jacobs U.S. Pat. No. 1,217,769; Dawson U.S. Pat. No. 2,810,230; Richardson U.S. Pat. No. 2,632,275).
More secure fishhooks, which rely on springloaded traps, are presently illegal (e.g., Neal U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,748). Also, providing more secure fishhooks, which reduce the chance of a fish tearing loose, does not solve the problem of a fisherman's voluntarily disengaging a fish for return to the water (e.g., Lehmann U.S. Pat. No. 503,864; DeForest U.S. Pat. No. 264,256).
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an environmentally acceptable, springless, barbless fishhook. A further object is to provide a reversible fishhook that can be used for trolling, spinning, casting, and in conjunction with plug fishing. Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.